Lafayette sees historic look, new feel for Five Points

As city closes in on a Five Points plan, consultants see host of redevelopment possibilities in one of Lafayette’s oldest districts

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Five Points is one of the first commercial districts in Lafayette built outside downtown. The city is spending $161,000 to come up with a redevelopment plan for the area.(Photo: John Terhune/Journal & Courier)Buy Photo

LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Louie Lehnen looked over the drawings and schematics of what Lafayette’s Five Points area could be in the next 10 to 20 years and knew his business wouldn’t be part of it.

The rethinking of Five Points – shown Thursday night in a collection of townhomes, restaurants and refigured sidewalks and bike lanes – didn’t exactly seem conducive to Snyder & Lehnen Sheet Metal, a business at 1630 Main St. that has had its heavy machinery in the small business district up the hill from downtown since 1912.

“I don’t think they’ll let us in the middle of all this that they’re showing tonight,” Lehnen said. “But we’re OK with that – someday, at least. … Lafayette needs to get a grip on what it wants to be. And Five Points seems like a good place to do that. It needs some help.”

In a yearlong, $161,000 study commissioned by the city, that’s been one of the takeaways for Dennis Carson, Lafayette’s economic development director.

“I’ve just been blown away by the participation and just how many people really seem interested in this,” Carson said, after the last of the public events before a final report is delivered to the city sometime in February. On Thursday night, approximately 80 people came to Jenks Rest in Columbian Park see the drawings and weigh in on the project.

“I mean, nobody was really coming to me and talking a lot about Five Points before we got started,” Carson said. “I thought it was just me. But it’s clear we hit on something where people want to see something happen.”

Five Points is a section of Lafayette that takes in part of four neighborhoods and includes a busy triangle of intersections bounded by Main, 18th and South streets.

Dennis Carson, right, Lafayette's economic development director, discusses possibilities for the Five Points area during an open house Thursday at Jenks Rest at Columbian Park.(Photo: Dave Bangert/Journal & Courier)

The city has no intention of buying land or taking land to lead the development, Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski has said. The idea of the study has been to show what might be done to make the place bookended by downtown four blocks down the hill to Columbian Park about four blocks in the other direction more of a destination.

“We know this is a substantial project,” Roswarski said Thursday, pointing to redevelopment being done on either side of Five Points. “We still have a long way to go to fine tune things.”

In other public meetings about Five Points, neighbors in the Perrin, Columbian Park, Valley Center and St. Mary neighborhoods have suggested new housing, grocery store, restaurants, safer bike lanes, and better sidewalks and pedestrian crossings.

On Thursday, Eric Lucas, with the consulting firm MKSK, showed a number of possible places for fresh developments, including a few that could incorporate historic facades backed by new construction. That included the possibility of new townhomes southeast of the corner of 18th and Main streets; a commercial development in the triangle bound by Main, 18th and South streets; and a mix of retail and housing along South Street, between 15th and 16th streets.

Sketches showed he possibility of closing off 16th Street, between Alabama and South streets, to simplify the intersection that gives Five Points its name.

And Lucas also offered the possibility that the corner lot where Bar Barry Liquors is now could one day be a park, given the number of residents who said their neighborhoods lacked open spaces where they could take children.

Overall, Lucas said the city was in a position to rebrand Five Points as something new.

“I think I can see some of this happening,” said Rebecca McKinney, who lives in the Columbian Park neighborhood. “I think I’m with everyone else, thinking just about anything would help. Right now, it’s just, I don’t know, there.”

Scott Brown, who lives in the Historic Jefferson Neighborhood, said he was hoping to see the study include two-way traffic on Main Street heading up the hill out of downtown. That, he said, would give another way to get from downtown to Five Points.

Lucas said that had been the hope of consultants, too. But trying to time lights and other traffic patterns didn’t pan out.

“It was a heartbreaker for us, believe me,” Lucas said.

Tim Hornbeck, a co-owner with Lehnen at Snyder & Lehnen, said he liked “the idea of everything.”

“I’m not sure how they think this will get done, but I pretty much like what’s here,” Hornbeck said. “The No. 1 thing, not in here, is they need to fix the crime in the area. Nothing happens without that, I can tell you.”

Lucas said the Five Points plan, when delivered to the city is meant to be a long-term look. And nothing was locked in stone.

“This is basically ideas that could get people talking,” Lucas said. “Where it goes from there, we’ll have to see.”